Laurien Van Dyck

Laurien Van Dyck is a project portfolio officer at the VIB Grand Challenges Program.

After a successful bioscience-engineering curriculum, Laurien obtained her PhD at the lab of Diether Lambrechts. Her FWO-funded PhD project focused on the immunotherapy response in hypoxic tumours, specifically evaluating how retrotransposon-like elements (called ‘cryptic transcripts’) affect tumor immunogenicity, immune activity, and the response to immunotherapy.

During the last years of her PhD, Laurien also facilitated the cooperation between the clinic and academia in her function as project coordinator of the VIB Grand Challenges Pointillism project. This multi-disciplinary project applied single-cell technologies to unravel the dynamic changes in the tumor micro-environment that underlie therapeutic responses to immunotherapy.

After her PhD, Laurien joined the VIB Grand Challenges team as project portfolio officer. She is responsible for the follow-up of the different VIB Grand Challenges projects, supporting the projects to pursue societal impact. Additionally, Laurien is also responsible for the outreach and stakeholder interaction activities.

Laurien is a science, communication and science-communication lover that enjoys sharing her enthusiasm with the broader public. She has a heart for the environment and a drive for organizing and participating in (social) activities. Laurien likes spending time outdoors; you can find her regularly on a volleyball field or a sunny terrace.